Chickens????

[chickencoop789]

Im thinking about getting some silver spangled hamburg chickens, but I dont know if its the best breed of chicken to get. Im either going to get all hamburgs or mix and match different breeds. I like the hamburgs for their small size and good egg production, but their eggs are peewee size. My other option is getting 1 of 4 or 5 different breeds that lay large eggs. Any opinions or suggestions?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Hamburgs like to fly I've read.

You might want to look at Henderson's chart:
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

Also there is a breed section here on BYC.

And feathersite.com of course...there are HOURS of browsing there!

You need to decide if you want heavy chickens that don't fly too much and lay large eggs, or flighty chickens with white eggs, or small chickens that fly and have small eggs, etc.

Then there are Easter Eggers with green or blue eggs, feather-footed or clean-legged, and on and on.

I personally like Orpingtons but the real best egglayers are going to be the sex-links (lay for 3 years and then slow way down supposedly but then all chickens slow way down) or Leghorns (white). Also there are some other breeds that are pretty good egglayers.

If you have a lot of mud you don't really want feather-footed. If you are in the heat the large heavy birds suffer some. If you are in a cold climate you are going to have to heat your Seramas from my understanding (the smallest chicken) and White-Faced Spanish don't like the cold. I am just mentioning those rare breeds as an example of how it is good to look at climate, too.

 

[NYREDS]

There is no best breed of chickens to get. Get the ones that appeal to you the most. Silver Spangled Hamburgs are beautiful birds that generally lay very well & they lay a bigger egg than you might think. On the other hand a mixed flock of varied birds has a certain visual appeal. Do what you think will be most pleasing to you, it's really not a choice someone else can make.

 

[Lazarus718]

My wife and I had a similar thought when we were initially in the planning stages of getting our chicks. What I did was browse through this site and others and compile a list of breeds that I felt would suit my needs as well as our extreme environment in the high desert. For me it was non-white eggs, good breeds for captivity (we both work full-time jobs, have a young son, and are surrounded by predators), proven layers, variety, and my wife's request was that she at least had one chicken that made a good pet. So I wrote the list down and we went to the feed store and got what we were able to. We ended up with one RIR, two EE's, one SLW, a Barred Rock and a bantam silver penciled Cochin. She's in love with the Cochin, the thing is constantly seeking out our attention when we let them all out in the yard instead of pecking around in stuff like the others. She's basically a lap dog. I prefer the Wyandotte, she is more of what I think of when I think of a free bird. She entertains herself and does chicken stuff. She doesn't want to be caught and picked up and pet and wear cute little bows and all of that. My wife hates that bird. So, it's all up to what you are looking for in a chicken and each breed offers up a certain generalization. But it is only a generalization, they are up to decide for themselves what kind of chicken they will be. I'd say get an assortment before setting your mind on the textbook description and see which breed catches your eye. After all, if you end up with one too many pullets you'll always find a willing body to steal one of your layers off of your hands if you don't want to send her to the gallows yourself.